S.F. Fire Department’s key training center to shut down soon

EMS training supervisor Jeff Covitz waits for firefighters to arrive for an exercise at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new home for the training center before it will be forced to surrender the property for planned development within the next 9 years.

EMS training supervisor Jeff Covitz waits for firefighters to...

White smoke from a fire is billowing out the windows of a two-story home, and somewhere inside are three victims.

Rigs from San Francisco Fire Station 7 squeal onto the scene. The firefighters pry open the metal front door. A child is rescued from under the living room couch, and two adults are saved from an upstairs bedroom. The fire is extinguished.

Firefighting

Forgotten, the victims languish in a puddle near the front door. One dummy’s head has snapped off, and its legs are missing.

There’s always something burning at the Fire Department’s in-service training facility on Treasure Island. It’s where recruits learn to saw through a roof, douse a fire and rescue trapped victims. But soon it will be gone — the 4.82-acre facility leveled, planted with grass and turned into a park during Treasure Island’s development. It will leave the Fire Department with no facility to train new and veteran firefighters.

“There’s not another training facility with a live burn room like this anywhere in the state,” said San Francisco Fire Department training Capt. Jeff Columbini. “It’s like a movie set, and we make the fire feel real. We can simulate every kind of call we could possibly get, from a burning house to a high-rise fire, and that’s what makes this facility so important. We do not want to lose this place.”

The Fire Department has a yearly lease with the Treasure Island Development Authority, the nonprofit public agency that is overseeing the economic development of the island. Construction is phased and slated to take 20 years. The facility could remain for seven years or be closed as soon as next year. The Fire Department has an additional, limited training center at 19th and Folsom streets, but it does not include a live burn room.

‘Open space and parks’

“The development plan ultimately decided to use this land for other uses,” development authority spokesman Bob Beck said. “There is no anticipated vision for keeping the facility at this point. Instead, it will be open space and parks. The city is looking at other alternatives for fire training in the future.”

Officials aren’t sure what they’ll do when the site is shut down. San Francisco is too dense, land is expensive, and toting giant propane tanks into a residential area isn’t safe. A replacement facility is estimated to cost $160 million and is on the city budget’s deferred list. The center on Treasure Island costs $23,000 annually to operate.

Once used by the Navy as a firefighting training center, the facility has been used by the Fire Department for about 15 years. It includes a fake BART station, a high-rise building, an elevator prop where firefighters can practice extricating trapped people, and a burn house that can be ignited without actually burning the structure down.

Changing scenarios

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 1of/11

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 11

EMS training supervisor Jeff Covitz walks past a Hollywood-style disaster scene at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new home for the training center before it will be forced to surrender the property for planned development within the next 9 years. less

Firefighters rescue dummy victims from a simulated structure fire at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new home for the training center before it will be forced to surrender the property for planned development within the next 9 years. less

Firefighters rescue dummy victims from a simulated structure fire at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 3 of 11

Simulated smoke billows from a structure at a fictitious intersection during a training exercise at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new home for the training center before it will be forced to surrender the property for planned development within the next 9 years. less

Simulated smoke billows from a structure at a fictitious intersection during a training exercise at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 4 of 11

Anatomical figures are stored at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new home for the training center before it will be forced to surrender the property for planned development within the next 9 years. less

Anatomical figures are stored at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 5 of 11

Training supervisor Capt. Jeff Columbini stands in the doorway of the burn room, which simulates a structure fire, at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new home for the training center before it will be forced to surrender the property for planned development within the next 9 years. less

Training supervisor Capt. Jeff Columbini stands in the doorway of the burn room, which simulates a structure fire, at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 6 of 11

Infant dummies are available for medical training at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new home for the training center before it will be forced to surrender the property for planned development within the next 9 years. less

Infant dummies are available for medical training at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 7 of 11

Firefighters extinguish a blaze in a simulated structure fire at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new home for the training center before it will be forced to surrender the property for planned development within the next 9 years. less

Firefighters extinguish a blaze in a simulated structure fire at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 8 of 11

Training supervisor Capt. Jeff Columbini (right) observes firefighters during an exercise at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new home for the training center before it will be forced to surrender the property for planned development within the next 9 years. less

Training supervisor Capt. Jeff Columbini (right) observes firefighters during an exercise at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 9 of 11

Safety equipment of a veteran firefighter is seen at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new home for the training center before it will be forced to surrender the property for planned development within the next 9 years. less

Safety equipment of a veteran firefighter is seen at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 10 of 11

Firefighters tend to dummy victims rescued from a simulated structure fire at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new home for the training center before it will be forced to surrender the property for planned development within the next 9 years. less

Firefighters tend to dummy victims rescued from a simulated structure fire at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Image 11 of 11

Firefighters enter a smoky building during a simulated structure fire at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new home for the training center before it will be forced to surrender the property for planned development within the next 9 years. less

Firefighters enter a smoky building during a simulated structure fire at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

S.F. Fire Department’s key training center to shut down soon

1 / 11

Back to Gallery

Using a long wand filled with flashing buttons, instructors can add more flame and smoke to a simulation, or cause a flashover, which is when flames suddenly spread above the recruits’ heads. The internal structures — like the walls, doors and room configurations — can also be switched around, creating a plethora of scenarios.

“It’s like a movie set where we try to create any possibility they could possibly experience,” said Fire Department training Lt. Patrick Shea. “Just like out in the real world, they never know what they will experience here.”

There are also four emergency medical services classrooms where people use dummies to start an intravenous treatment or learn mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Growing ranks

Bigger recruit classes further complicate the issue. The Fire Department is expecting record class sizes for the next four years. This year, there are 56 recruits, which is the largest class yet. Numbers are usually in the low 30s. When the facility is shut down, many of the firefighters will report to their first house fires having never experienced one before.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Capt. Jeff Columbini (right) debriefs firefighters after supervising a training exercise at the San Francisco Fire Department's in-service training facility on Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015. The department will need to find a new home for the training center before it will be forced to surrender the property for planned development within the next 9 years.

Capt. Jeff Columbini (right) debriefs firefighters after...

“It’s so expensive, I can’t possibly see how we could replace this,” Columbini said. “I would rather have our beginners fight their first flames here than at 2 a.m. in the Mission on a sloped roof they’ve never experienced before. This facility makes our city a lot safer.”

Other agencies, including the San Francisco Police Department, BART and other fire departments, also use the training facility. It costs about $5,000 a day to rent the space, and the money goes to operating costs.

The Fire Department has considered opening a regional facility with departments in surrounding counties. But given the size of the San Francisco force, a time share does not seem likely.

“You can’t fight fires now like we did 25 years ago,” Assistant Deputy Fire Chief Ken Lombardi said. “This is a state-of-the-art facility. We have spent well over a quarter-million dollars improving it. The training we give people here is unlike anywhere else in the Bay Area. It doesn’t get much realer than this.”